


lay down your arms

by inquisitor_tohru



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Armitage Hux Lives, BB-8 Ships It, Background Femslash, Background Rose Tico/Kaydel Ko Connix, Canon-Typical Violence, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Friends to Lovers, Jedi Finn (Star Wars), M/M, Mutual Pining, Past Child Abuse, Past Torture, Poe Dameron Is A Mess, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Redemption, Resistance Member Armitage Hux, Rey & Rose Tico Friendship, Slow Burn, or something like it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:28:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22318627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitor_tohru/pseuds/inquisitor_tohru
Summary: After the battle at Exegol, General Poe Dameron leads the Resistance against the remnants of the First Order, while his co-general, Finn, trains in the ways of the Force with Rey. But when Armitage Hux turns up alive, things get complicated.Even if the former First Order general saved them before and is willing to continue assisting the Resistance...Poe is all too aware of the billions crying out for justice against the man responsible for the Hosnian Cataclysm.
Relationships: Finn/Rey (Star Wars), Poe Dameron & Finn, Poe Dameron/Armitage Hux, Rey & Rose Tico
Comments: 30
Kudos: 131





	1. Evasive Maneuvers

Finn reacted quickly, a split second judgement that was part instinct, part training. He dived to his left, narrowly escaping falling debris from the booby traps above. Booby traps that _he_ hadn't triggered. That hadn't been there the last time he'd been here.

Someone was close. His fingers rested on his copper lightsaber hilt, tracing the elaborate engravings to keep himself focused. Someone was close. Very, very close. He ignited his saber, a burst of pure white light illuminating the lush greens of the Ajan Kloss jungle. Leaves rustled somewhere behind him, and a twig snapped in one of the trees above. Finn focused, reaching out towards the Force. Not in the way he'd been shown - that had worked for Rey and Leia, but not for him. He figured they all perceived and harnessed the Force in their own ways.

He looked up.

A shimmer of yellow-gold and white, and she was on him, sparks flying as their weightless blades flickered and clashed. He laughed, and Rey grinned, using her strong legs to keep him pinned down.

"The idea's to _dodge_ my attack, Finn."

"Well of course you make it _sound_ easy!" Rey smirked, retracting her saber. "You've had way more practise than me, and you keep putting up all these new booby traps! Anyone would think you wanted this to happen." He gestured towards her thighs, still crushing against his hips.

"Training with a friend _is_ more fun than training alone…" BB-8 rolled out from behind a nearby bush, letting out a disgruntled beep. "Of course you're my friend, too, BB-8! You know what I _meant_." More disgruntled beeps, before a more suggestive chirp. Rey scrambled to her feet, cheeks turning pink.

"Should probably get back. It's starting to get dark," Finn said, returning his lightsaber to the holster resting on his hip. He tensed, hand lingered over holster for a few seconds longer. "See how Poe and his new best friend are getting along." Rey laughed at BB-8's torrent of what Finn could only assume were the kind of words stormtroopers would _not_ have been allowed to utter in front of the First Order officers.

_FN-2187. Stormtrooper._ The title had never rolled off his tongue, never quite felt right as it slipped from his lips, even when it was all he knew. Combat simulations with Slip, Zeroes and Nines...it seemed so long ago, but he still remembered what they looked like beneath their helmets. Slip's hazel eyes shining with nervous excitement. The shape of the pale scar on Zeroes' right cheek. Nines' unkempt red hair. He thought about how Nines hesitated to shoot back at Pressey's Tumble, and whether things could have ended differently on Takodana. He couldn't help thinking about that part of his life lately. Not when…

"Hey Finn, race you back!" Rey called, already several metres ahead, taking the staff from her back and using it to launch herself back up into the sprawling network of branches above. Finn sighed, pushing those memories aside for now. This would require his full attention - Rey was as bad as Chewbacca was for cheating, and at least the Wookiie had the good sense to be a little more subtle about it. After the first (and last) time, Finn had vowed never to set foot in the Mos Eisley cantina with Rey again. Or Poe. Or anyone, actually. He'd been happy to accompany her to Tatooine because she had something important she wanted to do there, but he couldn't say he cared much for the location.

Finn hissed as he dodged the serpentine tendrils that crept beneath the foliage on the forest floor, only to scrape his bare arm against the jagged bark of an old cedar. Still, better than tripping over and finding himself at the mercy of the local plantlife, he supposed.

"That tree always used to get me, too," Rey said, when he emerged from the trees mere seconds after her. BB-8 was already rolling towards the command centre, no doubt eager to reunite with Poe.

"Uh-huh. Something tells me you didn't have a friend sending creepy vines after you." Rey smiled sweetly, but it did nothing to conceal the impish look in her eyes.

"Who, me? I would _never_."

"Sure, sure."

"Finn," she said, her tone suddenly much more serious. "You know I'd never try to hurt you."

"I do." They followed BB-8, bumping shoulders as they walked side by side, Finn's heart fluttering as Rey's hand found his.

* * *

Poe arrived at the medbay still wearing the clothes he'd been training in, damp curls plastered to his forehead. He'd intended on showering but had lost track of time, and besides, the humidity on Ajan Kloss meant he'd be sweating again within the hour. Doctor Kalonia greeted him outside the patient's closed door, setting aside a tray filled with individually packed needles, syringes, and other similarly delightful objects.

"He's awake," she shrugged. "But I can't promise he'll be cooperative."

"I'd expect nothing less."

"You might do better sending your astromech in. He seems to prefer droids to people. Then again, he did ask for you."

General Hux looked marginally better than the last time Poe had seen him. No, not General Hux - he was just Hux now. His skin was still pale, but thanks to the treatments he'd received from the Resistance, he was beginning to lose the sickly, waxy complexion he'd worn when he was first dragged into their Ajan Kloss headquarters.

"Well, if it isn't my old friend, Hugs." Poe leaned back against the wall, his legs aching from practising the tornado kicks Finn had shown him.

"Dameron." He noticed that Hux made a point of barely moving his lips when he spoke.

" _General_ Dameron," he reminded him. But it wouldn't do to rub too much salt in that wound. Hux wasn't necessarily an ally, but he was an asset to the Resistance. Since the battle at Exegol, most of the First Order's Supreme Council had perished, and the chain of command was in shambles. And here was Hux, a member of that very council, no doubt with at least _some_ knowledge worth sharing...and he _had_ helped them escape the _Steadfast._ "How are you feeling?"

"I've felt worse." Poe nodded. With Kylo Ren as his boss, he didn't doubt it. There were still nights when Poe couldn't sleep for fear of the nightmares. This time when Hux had opened his mouth, he'd confirmed Poe's suspicions - a couple of missing teeth. But in this instance Kylo Ren was not the culprit. That was just good old malnutrition. He'd known a few people who'd had teeth removed (surgically and otherwise), and the replacements you could get nowadays looked decent enough to fool most people. Nevertheless, he supposed he'd be self-conscious, too.

"So," Poe's gaze flickered towards the plate of food on the bedside table. "Have I _really_ been called over here to tell you to eat your greens?" Hux wrinkled his nose. Poe couldn't see why. The food looked (and smelled) damn good for an infirmary - pickled blackbeak eggs, broccoli, and roasted chando peppers, accompanied by aromatic Chandrilan tea.

"And how do I know it's not poisoned?" Poe almost laughed.

"If we wanted you dead, it would have been much more efficient to have saved our medical supplies and resources for someone else. Scurvy might be easy to treat, but _without_ treatment you'll die." He leaned forward, eyeing up the food again. "And I certainly wouldn't waste good chando peppers." Hux merely scowled at the plate. Poe sighed, and picked up an orange strip of pepper between his thumb and forefinger before popping it in his mouth - just to humour Hux, of course. The fact that the sweet, honey-infused peppers were delicious had nothing to do with it.

"If you're _still_ unconvinced, I'm sure one of the droids will be happy to scan for toxins." Hux shot the plate another dirty look, but stabbed at a sliver of pepper with his plastic fork. When Poe saw the face he made as he tasted it, he couldn't hold back his laughter.

"If I have to eat another one of these, I'll poison _myself_." Coming from someone who was surviving on bland, out of date ration bars until recently, that was pretty funny. But he seemed keen enough to eat the rest, albeit very slowly.

Instead of awkwardly observing the spectacle, Poe took the opportunity to take out his datapad and browse through a few messages. Most of them would have to wait for later as they warranted more careful reading, but one new message caught his eye - BB-8 had used his newly installed camera to capture a few images of Finn and Rey training. He grinned at Rey crouching on a high branch, all sharp elbows and knees, and Finn wielding his lightsaber as naturally as if it was an extension of his very being. As he scrolled, his heart soared...then sank. He glanced up to see Hux staring at him.

"You can have my peppers. If you want."

"Um, sure. Thanks, Hugs." Hux narrowed his eyes in response to the nickname, but pushed the plate of roasted peppers towards him.

Somehow, they tasted bittersweet.


	2. Base Camp

"As I recall, I directed you to shoot me in the _arm_." Hux made a show of adjusting his stance so that his cane supported his weight better. Under normal circumstances the wound would have healed by now but, as with every part of his life, there had been complications.

"Yeah, well...you know I never was great at following First Order directions."

"And here I was, just thinking your aim was spectacularly awful."

"I can see why you'd have concerns. Your training programme was pretty shoddy." Hux bit his lip. To think that he and Phasma had once considered this man as a potential squad leader. _Ridiculous_. If he agreed with Finn on one thing, it was that FN-2187 made a terrible stormtrooper.

Unfortunately for Hux, he made an excellent general. He saw his opponent's weakness, and knew when and where to strike. They might be on the same side for now, but there was no doubt in Hux's mind that this was how Finn saw him - as an opponent. In any case, that was of no consequence to him. He'd hardly expected to make _friends_ here. But he was careful not to go too far in provoking Finn or Rey, that girl Ren had been so obsessed with. Like Ren, they were strong in the Force, and he'd overheard one of the pilots claim Rey could shoot lightning from her fingertips. He asked Dameron if it was true. He'd shifted a little uncomfortably when he said it was.

That's right - Ren had been the one to have Dameron on the torture rack aboard the _Finalizer._ He knew what the Force could do, as Hux did. He might have hated the ritualism and mysticism, but he couldn't deny that it was real. Not after being thrown to the ground, humiliated, by an unseen hand. Not after gasping for breath as an invisible noose tightened around his neck. The Force was real, and Hux planned on staying as far away from anyone who wielded that particular weapon as he possibly could.

It turned out that was not very far.

Dameron was, evidently, otherwise occupied, and so Finn had been entrusted with keeping an eye on Hux, now that he was up and about again. It was hardly as though he'd get very far with his leg as it was, so Hux had to assume that the insistence on having an escort was for _his_ protection, rather than to safeguard members of the Resistance. Though he _supposed_ that included him now.

"I don't see why your people would bother taking me in," Hux said. "If you're not going to put me to work." Finn's broad shoulders tensed.

"That would be irresponsible...when you're still recovering from your injuries." Excellent general, terrible liar. Though, to tell the truth, Hux suspected he hadn't tried very hard to make it sound convincing. They were, after all, _mutually_ aware of their _mutual_ contempt for one another. It was more or less the answer Hux had expected, but not the one he _wanted._ After spending days in bed, he was bored out of his mind. He tried reading through the few materials he'd been given access to. He tried doing the physiotherapy exercises the doctor had recommended. None of it made a difference.

The truth was that without his work, Hux could barely function. He felt as if he were merely flailing about, even more so than when Starkiller Base had been lost. _Lost._ That was the word they used, as if it was something that could be misplaced. Oh! Perhaps it had been concealed beside his monomolecular blade all along!

(Of course, Dameron had found and confiscated that.)

He loosened his grip on his cane, forcing the injured leg to bear some of the weight, and winced. Finn gave him an odd look, but didn't comment on it.

"I can...help." For all the speeches Hux had given over the years, these words came out clumsily, tripping over his tongue and tumbling from his lips, like they'd been stuck in his throat.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Such biting sarcasm. Still, he supposed, at least Finn didn't _actually_ bite him.

* * *

"Ah! Got it!" Rey had tried to run through the basics of lightsaber construction, but Rose was like her and learned more easily by getting hands on. Once Rey had worked up the nerve to hand her lightsaber over it hadn't taken Rose long to, quite literally, get to grips with it. She wondered why Rose had asked to see her saber and not Finn's. Perhaps she figured he should keep his while he was minding Hux. Poe hadn't asked it of him, would never ask it of him...but Finn took his roles of general and Jedi seriously, and had volunteered himself. Rey wondered how he was holding up, and smiled. It would be difficult for him, but she was sure he'd be just fine. He was so _strong._

Rose handled her saber with the utmost care and respect as she examined its inner workings, and Rey felt the mechanic's excitement like crackling lightning when she ran her fingers over the handgrip ridges and activated the saber.

"Suits you, Rose." They both turned to see Kaydel looking away from her console to admire the view. Rey noticed Rose blush. "Maybe you ought to get a blade of your own."

"As _awesome_ as this is, I'm happy with my blaster. And it's a little on the long side."

"Oh, here," Rey's fingers brushed against Rose's as she found the switch. "You can adjust the length."

"Huh. I'll still keep the blaster though." It was funny to think that in some ways, Rose probably knew more about how Rey's lightsaber worked than she did. When she'd constructed it, it hadn't been like the things she'd dismantled or built from scrap on Jakku. Nor was it similar to her work repairing and maintaining the _Falcon._ When Rey had gathered the materials to build her own lightsaber, it was as if she'd entered a trance. She imagined following a winding golden thread as she felt the Force guide her. Rather than relying on her engineering skills, Rey began a process of trial and error, bolstered by intuition and her faith in the Force. This was _probably_ why she'd had difficulties in describing it to Rose, and until the mechanic had suggested it, it had never occurred to Rey to simply _look inside._ There were a lot of things relating to the Force that she found hard to explain. What happened on Exegol…

Finn had sensed her death and her rebirth. Rey had expected him to have a million questions, but he'd only asked one:

_Are you okay?_

Even that was tricky to answer. She was grieving for the man she'd first met after he'd strapped her to a First Order torture rack. The man who'd killed Han Solo, who'd very _nearly_ killed Finn, who'd hunted her across the galaxy, who'd killed Luke Skywalker and

and

and

who stood with her against Palpatine, who'd given her his life and taken her first kiss.

Nothing about any of this was remotely _okay_. But the most important thing to her, right then, had been that _Finn_ was okay. That _he_ was alive and there with her.

"Rey, are you okay?" Rose gently touched her arm. "You're a little pale." _Was_ she okay? The answer was still-

"Yeah. Sorry, just spaced out there for a moment." She tried to laugh it off, but Rose and Kaydel shared a worried look. "Really, I'm just a little tired. Training is _way_ more intense with a partner."

"Oh, I'll bet," Rose said, eyes twinkling.

"Hey!" Rey nudged her with her elbow, and laughed when Rose elbowed her right back. It was a welcome distraction. Even if it had been a little surprising, she was glad Rose had asked to study her lightsaber rather than Finn's - glad to get the chance to know her better. They'd spoken plenty after Crait, but the war had always dominated those conversations, like it did everything else. The galaxy wasn't at peace (and, frankly, Rey wondered if it ever _truly_ would be), but things were getting better.

There were still skirmishes and dogfights, but in the months since their victory at Exegol, they were actually able to coordinate relief missions. The Resistance still had important work to do, but they had the luxury of a little time to themselves...except for Poe, anyway. She worried about him, and she knew Finn did, too. Her thoughts were interrupted by a high-pitched beep from Kaydel's console.

"It's Poe," Kaydel grinned excitedly. "Oh." Rey and Rose abandoned the workbench to see what was going on. Kaydel tapped the monitor, indicating the outlines of two TIE fighters.

"Looks like he's got company."


	3. Deception

"Happy beeps, buddy, _happy_ beeps!" Poe wasn't sure if he kept repeating the phrase for BB-8 or himself, but it beat the panicked whirring of his decrepit fighter's engines. He'd taken the ancient bi-wing to _avoid_ detection on Chandrila, with much of the planet still under First Order occupation, but evidently his reputation preceded him.

Still, he'd managed to shake off all but two of his pursuers when he'd taken a rather exciting detour via the Anaxes asteroid belt. The majority had turned back, rather than risk the barreling into the cluster of jagged rocks.

The remaining two were either damn good pilots, or lucky as hell. Right now he was hoping it was the latter, and that their luck was running out. BB-8 gave a low, drawn out beep as the fighter's comm crackled to life.

"...urgent communiqué for General Poe Yammerin'." In spite of his situation, Poe found himself laughing.

"Ah, Hugs. Did it take you a year and a half to come up with that?"

"...no." Hux's clipped tone suggested irritation - perhaps wordplay simply wasn't his forté. "And if you possess even an _iota_ of common sense, you'll concern yourself with the matter at hand and follow my instructions _precisely_."

" _You're_ not the general here." BB-8 made a noise that sounded far too much like an eye roll for Poe's liking.

"That couldn't be plainer," Hux snapped. "Nonetheless, your new _friends_ out there seem to think I am."

"Huh, wondered why they'd stopped firing. _Really_ , Hugs. I leave for a couple of days and you stage a coup while I'm gone?"

"Something like that." Poe found he could picture the curl of Hux's lips just by listening to his voice. "I convinced them that the base is under First Order occupation and requested they bring you in alive, so I might deal with you _personally_."

"Fine. Tell me what I need to do."

Poe didn't need to ask to know whose idea this had been. It was hardly as though they didn't have the means to bring down _two_ TIE fighters, but there were two key problems with that strategy. Firstly, there was no guarantee that doing so would prevent the pilots calling for backup before plummeting to their fiery deaths. The second issue was, of course, the pilots _plummeting to their fiery deaths -_ they'd agreed that if an opportunity to avoid further bloodshed ever presented itself, it was absolutely imperative that they took it. And by successfully utilizing Hux in this way, Finn had eliminated both problems.

 _And_ got them two First Order TIE fighters.

This was why he'd asked him to be his co-general. The First Order might have tried to stamp out any signs of individuality, of creativity, of empathy...but Finn, along with Jannah and her squad, were living proof of their failure. So were the hundreds of stormtroopers that had defected since Exegol, in no small part thanks to Finn and Jannah's efforts.

"You do realise following that trajectory will lead to a crash landing?"

"That's the idea," Hux said curtly. "I'm surprised you haven't crashed already in that _relic._ " BB-8 chirped in agreement.

"What can I say?" Poe braced himself. "I'm one hell of a pilot." Hux muttered something but it was rendered completely unintelligible as the bi-wing tumbled out of the air and into the treetops. BB-8 let out a long whistling sound.

"Sorry, little guy." Astromechs didn't experience dizziness, but BB-8 had a particular aversion towards being jostled about and turned upside down, so Poe avoided it as much as possible. "But, hey, we're still in one piece aren't we? Besides, now maybe we can have a little fun with our new friends."

* * *

Finn watched as Rose scrutinized Hux's every word, every _movement_ . He understood her wariness - even shared it, to a degree. It was hardly as if _he_ was Hux's number one fan. Neither of them would forget being shoved to the ground, presented to him for their executions. Much had changed since then, but Hux's cruel smile as he mocked Rose's homeworld and the sting of his gloved hand against Finn's cheek remained imprinted in his memory. He wondered if Hux had worn that same smile when he ordered the destruction of the Hosnian System.

No, it wasn't in Hux's nature to want to help them...but it wasn't in his _interest_ to refuse or to betray them either. At least for now _._ For the most part, Rey had been uncharacteristically quiet, but had made her agreement clear. If there was a good chance they could ground those pilots safely without putting Poe in danger, they should take it. There were others like himself and Jannah, probably confused and frightened as all that remained of everything they'd ever known lay buried in the smoking ruins of Exegol. There were stormtroopers, engineers, pilots, even officers who'd survived to see the First Order for what it really was. Who wanted to do the right thing - and they _deserved_ that chance. Besides, even _C-3PO_ had said the odds were in their favour.

He'd been right. The two TIE pilots had been so preoccupied with retrieving Poe from his ship's wreckage that they hadn't noticed the complete lack of any evidence of a First Order occupation.

"Really," Poe grinned at the tall raven-haired woman with a firm hold on his left arm. "You should let me take it for a spin sometime. I'll show you how it's done." She jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, but her expression suggested she was holding back. Finn had yet to meet a pilot who didn't take it to heart when someone insulted their flying.

"Alive and unharmed, as requested...sir?" The second pilot addressed Hux before glancing from him to Finn and the others, his gaze finally resting on Rey. Or, more specifically, on the lightsaber hilt attached to her belt. The tall pilot muttered something.

"She must have used one of those Jedi mind tricks on him," the shorter pilot stammered. "I've heard about-" Hux only needed to hold up his hand to command silence.

"You _imbecile_. Do you really think _I_ would succumb to such parlour tricks? Now, do as you were asked and hand over Dameron."

"I don't understand, sir. Are you...with the _Resistance_?"

"Well, _are_ you?" Poe asked, wriggling free from his would-be captors. Hux sighed, and used his cane to lift the woven net the TIE pilots had thrown over BB-8.

"I suppose I am." _At least for now._


	4. Carry On

"For the _last_ time," Tico said, without looking at Hux. "We do _not_ have torture racks."

"Then how, exactly, do you intend to extract information?"

" _You_ helped us, didn't you?" Dameron grinned, an unfortunate (but _probably_ unintentional) reminder of Hux's missing teeth.

"I was tortured, make no mistake." He shuddered as he recalled the pain, the _humiliation,_ that both Supreme Leaders had inflicted upon him. "Luckily for you, Kylo Ren did that part of your job." Rey shifted uncomfortably at the mention of Ren and, frankly, Hux couldn't blame her.

"Well, Rose is right," she said, apparently eager to change the subject. For her part, Tico had removed herself from the discussion in favour of conversing with Connix. Finn remained quiet. "That's not how we do things." A sudden chill ran down Hux's spine as he had an awful thought. Did she and Finn bypass the more traditional forms of interrogation, and simply sift through their prisoners' thoughts?

"You're uneasy," she said. Ice shot through Hux's veins.

"And _you're_ reading my mind," he hissed.

> _"I sense_ unease _about my appearance, General Hux."_

During that meeting he'd focused on that ridiculous mask to shut out any of his more treacherous thoughts but now, still recovering from his various injuries and maladies, he lacked the mental energy.

"With the look on your face, she doesn't need to," Dameron said softly. "Rey's not going to hurt you, or the pilots. At least...not unless you give her cause to act in self-defense. Right, Rey?" She nodded firmly.

"Right. We're going to _ask_ them about what's happening in Hanna City." She looked Hux right in the eye with an intensity that, for a moment, reminded him of Ren. But her gaze lacked the cruelty, the _bloodlust,_ that he associated with the late Supreme Leader. Allegiant General Pryde had called Ren beautiful once, or at least _almost_ beautiful, as they watched him hack through a tribe of Mustafar colonists with his lightsaber, the hot air heavy with the smells of sweat and blood, ozone and scorched vegetation. The sounds of blasterfire and bones breaking. Mustafar had reeked of death, and it clung to Kylo Ren along with volcanic ash, falling like snow.

He doubted that Rey would cause such a scene. Even her lightsaber seemed more stable, at least from the glimpses he'd stolen. They were still no substitute for an army, of course, but perhaps _some_ of these warriors had a place on the battlefield...or wherever it was that Jedi went.

"You need to sit down," Dameron told him, a little sternly. Hux opened his mouth to complain, before a wave of dizziness washed over him. He hated it when other people were right. Especially when other people were _Dameron._ He perched on a nearby crate, careful not to get too comfortable. "You've had a long day, Hugs. You did good." He felt the colour rising in his cheeks. _Ridiculous._ But when Dameron patted him on the back, his whole body went rigid.

"Sorry, I…" Dameron fumbled, quickly withdrawing his hand. Hux shook his head. The contact hadn't been painful. In fact, Dameron had been careful to avoid his injuries.

"Don't worry about it." Hux's tone was more brusque than he'd intended, but he didn't bother to correct himself. "As you said, I've had a long day, so I think I'll retire to the barracks. That is, if you can _manage_ to run your operations without my intervention."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll cope somehow," Finn said, rolling his eyes. Dameron suppressed a chuckle, then called the protocol droid over to escort him. A needless gesture...though he _was_ beginning to feel lightheaded again. The droid extended a polished, golden arm.

"If you'd like to follow me, sir." _Sir._ It had been strange to hear the TIE pilots refer to him that way again, but it was even stranger coming from the droid. Even if he knew it was simply a matter of programming. Dameron flashed him another lovely, taunting smile.

"Sleep tight, Hugs."

* * *

"Are people really that frightened of us?" Maybe Rey had begun to become accustomed to the way their friends regarded them and their abilities. But something about Hux's reaction and general demeanour struck a raw nerve.

"To be honest, I'm absolutely fine with Hux being a little scared. But…" Finn's expression darkened. "I imagine all of his experience with the Force came from Snoke and Kylo Ren. I wouldn't really wish that upon anyone. Not even someone like Hux." Rey resisted the impulse to defend Ben. He may not have been cut from the same cloth as Snoke, but Finn was right. She'd witnessed only a handful of the atrocities he'd committed, and that was more than enough to convince her, no matter what happened on Exegol. Nothing, absolutely _nothing_ , could erase the memory of Finn lying in the snow on Starkiller Base, holding onto his life by a mere thread. It was something she was reminded of every time he slipped on the jacket Poe had stitched up, pricking his fingers several times in the process, yet never complaining.

"We need to show people that the Force needn't be something to be feared." Rey moved closer to him and, though he wasn't wearing Poe's old jacket just then, she reached around to his back and traced the outline she knew by heart. "That it can be used to do good."

"And lift rocks?" She laughed. It had always been a joke between them, after Crait.

"And lift rocks."

"People come round," Finn said, and she didn't need to ask to know he was talking about Poe, who'd endured the same treatment from Ren as she had, _after_ being tortured, and without the innate ability to defend himself. She suspected his relationships with Leia and Finn had helped with that. Rey herself got on well enough with Poe, but there were still times when she sensed a certain wariness around her.

"I'm sorry, we should be drinking that disgusting hooch with the others instead of talking about this." She smiled at the face Finn pulled. "It'd be nice to spend some time with Rose and Kaydel before they leave on their next mission."

"I _think_ they might appreciate a little time to themselves, if you know what I mean. At least that's the impression I got from Poe."

"Oh! Well, good for them." She and Finn were still standing very close together. The tip of his nose brushed against her hairline as he kissed her forehead. She wanted more than anything to pull him even closer, to feel his lips on hers, but she _couldn't_.

Not yet.

It didn't feel right, keeping things from him. But she never seemed to find the right moment, and even if she _did_ , she wasn't sure she'd find a way to broach the topic. She could barely make sense of it herself. Since she died, or since Ben died, she'd felt increasingly disconnected from the person she'd been before Exegol. Even, at times, from the Force. Being around Rose, Kaydel, Poe, and the others helped, but spending time with Finn was what did the most to heal those fractured connections.

"Well, what about Poe then?"

"I'm not sure." Finn snickered. "Maybe he's gone off to try to flirt with Zorii again."

"Well, who can blame him? Have you _seen_ her?"

"I didn't realise you felt that way. Want me to ask Poe to put in a good word?" He laughed as Rey gave him a playful shove, and put on his best impression of C-3PO.

"If you'd like to follow me, Miss Rey." Finn's laughter was infectious, and as she took his hand, Rey felt her melancholy melt away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you may have spotted some familiarities in the passage where Hux is recalling Mustafar - credit goes to Rae Carson's novelization of TRoS for the inspiration :)


	5. Alliances

Poe shuffled, trying to get comfortable on a medbay seat that clearly hadn't been designed with someone of his proportions in mind. Hux sat a couple of seats away from him and was, for the most part, preoccupied with the new teeth Poe had arranged for him. He had to admit there was something a little satisfying in watching Hux run his index finger over his two front teeth, trying not to smile. _Especially_ when retrieving his dental records had ended up being a rather tremendous undertaking, but Threepio and his operatives had pulled through. Perhaps it was just the way he was wired, but the droid seemed keener than most to accommodate Hux while he was with the Resistance.

"Why are you being- why are you helping me?" Poe allowed himself a small smile at that, remembering the first time he met Finn, and his response to that same question.

_Because it's the right thing to do._

Over the last year and a half he'd come to know Finn better than anyone (except perhaps for Snap, but he pushed that thought away almost as quickly as it had surfaced). So he didn't doubt the truth of it, even if Finn _had_ needed Poe's piloting expertise. Just as General Poe Dameron needed Hux's intimate knowledge of First Order operations, procedures, personnel...

"You really helped me out today. And back on the _Steadfast_. That's twice you've saved my ass now." Hux was no fool, and Poe was certain he'd realise this wasn't the whole story. It wasn't a lie either, though, and it wouldn't hurt to express his gratitude.

"I've hindered you many more." Poe shrugged.

"Definitely not gonna argue with that." It was a _bit_ of an understatement really, from the man behind Starkiller Base, and while Poe thoroughly believed in second chances, Hux's presence made a lot of people on the base deeply, and understandably, uncomfortable. His own conversations with Hux had been civil enough, but he made no assumptions about where his loyalties lay. Still, he remembered what he'd said back when the Resistance had been based on Ryloth.

_"We've all made choices. Choices that caused harm, led to destruction, even at times death. We are all responsible for our deeds. The great and the terrible. But if we define ourselves only by what we've done, only by our failures, then this Resistance, this spark? It dies here and now._

_We're all here because we have a chance to change things. A chance to change ourselves. But we have to make that commitment. That choice. A choice…"_

_"A choice to be better_ ," Zay had finished for him. Poe sighed, damning his exceptional memory. He certainly hadn't expected to count Hux among the Resistance's numbers when he'd made that speech. He thought about what Leia had told him about Vader's last moments. What Rey had told him about Ben's. If they'd taken the chance to change themselves, then was there not hope for Hux? And so, while many of Hux's past actions disgusted him, Poe found himself wondering if Hux could make a choice to be better.

And what it would mean if he could.

"Thank you," Hux said quietly. "For…" He pointed to his teeth. The droid hadn't fitted them quite as straight as Poe remembered them, but the effect was oddly charming. Or maybe it was just the feeling of being able to make someone smile, even if that someone _was_ Armitage Hux.

"No problem." Poe moved to pat his arm, but withdrew his hand as he recalled Hux's reaction the last time he'd touched him. It had reminded him of D-0, the little droid BB-8 had befriended. "Thank you for…" He got another small smile out of Hux when he made an exaggerated gesture towards...well, himself.

"Hopefully you're at least more competent than Kylo Ren, and won't need me to rescue you a _third_ time." The smile was gone, and the sneer was back. For now, anyway.

"Now that's a story I've _got_ to hear."

* * *

" _That's_ how you got him off Starkiller Base? Huh." It was the first time someone had actually asked Hux about that particular story. Snoke, and even Ren himself, hadn't been interested enough to do so. He watched as Dameron took another sip of the caf they'd retrieved from the cantine, staffed by people rather than droids. Maybe that was why it tasted so bad.

"Not up to your exacting standards?" Dameron nodded towards Hux's almost-full cup. "I've been told First Order caf was really something."

"It was," he said, thinking back to its smooth, rich flavour. "Though I prefer tarine tea." Dameron laughed, and the silver in his beard caught the light.

"Well, I can't work miracles. Aside from when I'm in the cockpit, of course." He winked, and Hux realised he must have looked blank, as Dameron continued. "The import tax on tarine leaves is...pretty crazy right now. So I'm afraid you'll have to get used to drinking this crap for a while."

"And I thought you didn't believe in torture." Dameron's laugh was awkward, and Hux realised he'd said the wrong thing. He had a habit of doing that. Banter had never come easily to Hux and conversing with Dameron only seemed to make things worse in that regard.

"You know, Rey and I are torture buddies, too." He was normally good at reading expressions, but Dameron's dark eyes held something Hux couldn't quite place. His eyelashes were also ridiculously long, but that was entirely irrelevant, and Hux wasn't sure why he'd noticed.

"What?"

"We both did a stint on that interrogation rack on the _Finalizer,_ " he explained. "Well, who knows if it was the same one? I imagine there was more than one interrogation chamber."

"Two," Hux said softly. "There were two." Of course, they'd had other rooms that could be used for such purposes...but they rarely required the specialised equipment the interrogation chambers were fitted with. Most prisoners were ready to spill whatever intelligence they had in the relative comfort of their cells. _And sometimes their blood, too._

After the Resistance pilot fired the shot that destroyed Starkiller Base _and_ then had the audacity to humiliate him in front of the bridge crew on the _Supremacy_ , Hux had fantasised about getting Dameron back on that torture rack, so that he might interrogate him _personally._ But now...he found that the idea made him a little nauseous.

"Two too many," Dameron said, lifting his cup to his lips to take a long sip. Hux thought about what he'd seen and experienced around the Resistance base over the past few months. Thought about how the First Order TIE pilots he'd helped lure down were confined to their quarters, but provided with beds and the same rations as the Resistance members. He was sure he'd even seen Finn slipping the droids some reading material before they took the prisoners their meals. It had only taken a day before they _volunteered_ to share their information.

Maybe, just maybe, Dameron had a point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The speech Poe is recalling is from the fantastic Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse, set between TLJ and TRoS, which you should _definitely_ read!


	6. Downtime

Finn leaned back to take in the view of the night sky through the jungle canopy, glimpses of starlight against blue-black. Zorii passed him the bottle of mystery booze she'd found stars-knew-where, and Rey laughed at the way his features seemed to rearrange themselves when he took another swig. They'd found Zorii by a campfire, chatting with Kaydel and Rose (who'd since disappeared somewhere private), but no sign of Poe.

"Think he went to the medbay," Kaydel had told him with a shrug. "Oh, don't worry," she added upon seeing Finn's expression, "he seemed fine. Probably just routine." Finn wasn't so sure. Poe was extremely attentive when it came to the physical and mental health of the people who served alongside him in the Resistance, but Finn had noticed he was far less stringent when it came to his own wellbeing. There'd been nights on the Falcon where _he'd_ been woken by Poe's nightmares, or his anguished tossing and turning when he'd dislocated his shoulder. Maybe he was checking up on someone else - that must be it.

He gazed into the dying embers of the campfire and focused, not so much reaching out for the Force, but rather allowing himself to feel the way it ebbed and flowed around him. Zorii startled as the flames flickered back to life, but Rey put a hand on her arm.

"That's amazing," Zorii murmured, words slightly slurred, and for a moment Finn thought she might reach into the fire, just to make sure it was real.

"Show-off," Rey teased, but he could still feel the admiration radiating from her. He couldn't shoot lightning from his fingertips, but she couldn't manipulate fire like Finn could. The Force was different for everyone. It manifested in so many different ways, and it even _felt_ different. Perhaps that was why his First Order brothers - Nines, Zeros, Slip, and even the ones he didn't know well - had all seemed like individuals to him, even in their identical polished white armour. Perhaps. But not _everything_ was about the Force. Some nights when Finn couldn't sleep he'd stayed up with Jannah and Forten in the makeshift stables while they tended to the orbaks, smiling at Jannah trying to sneak Ferrule some extra oats when she thought Forten wasn't looking. They'd speak softly about the troopers who'd remained - about Ellie and the exaggerated spring in her step, or Tenoh's pre-battle jitters as he fidgeted with this and that.

"Right, well…I'm going to go get myself some shuteye." Zorii heaved herself up, tucking her helmet under her arm. "I'll leave you two lovebirds to it." Finn and Rey opened their mouths and raised their hands in unison, but Zorii just laughed and effectively shushed any objections that might have poured out. Finn watched her saunter over to the barracks, her silhouette reduced to a glimmer of gold against deep red.

"Lovebirds," Finn snorted, once he was sure Zorii was out of earshot. "I mean-"

"Right, yeah. We're _friends._ " Rey was a friend. A friend he sometimes wanted to kiss, like when she returned from Exegol, bloody and bruised, and still bathed in the sickly-sweet scent of death. Like now, flames dancing across her features, bringing out the intensity of her eyes. He averted his gaze, and the moment passed, just like so many others before it.

Maybe it was for the best. Even if Rey _had_ been interested, he'd probably only embarrass himself anyway. Kissing wasn't exactly a part of the First Order's stormtrooper training program. There had been one time, after his squad had _finally_ performed a successful simulation mission, when Slip and Nines got carried away - when a celebratory clap on the back became a hug, bodies pressed together so close that somehow their mouths came together in a clash of teeth and tongue. They were reprimanded, of course. That was the second time Nines had been recommended for reconditioning, and he hadn't been quite right after the first. He'd come back harder, meaner. _Broken_.

He parted ways with Rey at the barracks, catching the scent of her hair in his nostrils as he hugged her, lips barely brushing against her forehead. When she turned to leave, something in the Force seemed to pluck at the invisible threads between them, as if Finn ought to follow. He closed his eyes, focused on his breathing, like when they were meditating, and headed for the medbay.

* * *

They ought to have retired for the evening long ago but Poe was too wired to go to bed, and he was curious about all those rumours that, since waking from his coma, Hux didn't sleep. Of course he had to sleep at some point, though at three in the morning Poe still wasn't sure when that was likely to be. A couple of times Hux had swayed in his seat, indicating that he _was_ tired, even if he remained alert. For all he'd complained about the caf, Poe had lost count of how many cups Hux had before he thought to say something.

"I wasn't aware it was rationed. To be frank, I'm doing the Resistance a service by ridding you of this _swill_."

"Frank? I thought your name was-" Hux narrowed his eyes, and Poe wiped the smirk off his face. "Anyway, that's not the point. It's not healthy or normal for one person to ingest that amount of caffeine-"

"How _sweet_ of you to care about my health. Must be all that sugar you shovelled into yours." Hux wrinkled his nose, and Poe grinned again.

"What can I say? I'm a sweetheart." Hux snorted, then jumped as the door creaked open. "Oh, hey, buddy. What do you need?" Finn stood awkwardly in the doorway, frowning at Hux, who was now doing his best to ignore both of them.

"Nothing important." He shook his head, eyes still on Hux. "Clearly I'm interrupting something." Poe bristled at Finn's tone, but his chest tightened as he realised that, without really thinking about it, he'd put more distance between himself and Hux when Finn entered the break room. No wonder Finn was talking to him like he was a kid caught with one of his dad's cigarettes (which also may or may not have happened when he was thirteen).

"C'mon, Finn. If it brought you out looking for me at this time of night I doubt it's 'nothing important'." Finn shrugged.

"Nothing that can't wait. It's not like anyone's going to get hurt. At least, they won't if I leave now."

"Charming," Hux drawled, staring at his steaming cup of caf. Poe sighed loudly, and silently cursed the man's ability to acquire a refill so stealthily.

"Finn-" But he was already going, and Poe couldn't leave Hux unsupervised. Perhaps he should have just had Threepio escort Hux to the medbay. The two of them seemed to get along well, much to Artoo's chagrin.

The two of them sat in an awkward near-silence for a while, broken only by the occasional cough or the squeak of a chair. Hux didn't even bother to look disgusted as he sipped the last of his caf.

"Perhaps we should…"

"Yeah." Poe stood first, opening the door for Hux as he retrieved his cane. Tomorrow was going to be a very, very long day.


	7. Off-base

"He's always been like that," Zorii said, retracting her visor to take a sip of skordu from her flask. Finn had found her in the early hours of the morning, still unable to sleep with all the thoughts running through his mind. When she offered him the flask, he politely declined. Now that Kijimi was no more, there would be no more skordu, and it didn't feel right, taking one of the few tangible memories of home from her.

"What, shady? Gullible? Or-"

 _"Idealistic,"_ she finished for him, like the word was bile in her mouth. Like she hadn't spent the last few months sticking around and helping the Resistance herself. "I heard the children screaming as the First Order ripped them from their families, saw folk get trampled by UA-TT walkers. And I have _no_ sympathy for anyone who blows up a damn _planet_ or five."

"But?" Zorii frowned, her green-amber hardening.

"No buts." Finn nodded. That was fair. She'd accepted him, but he wasn't exactly First Order poster boy material. He hadn't given the order to destroy the Hosnian System and, with it, billions of lives. But he'd contributed to the construction and maintenance of Starkiller Base, hadn't he? When he hadn't been off-base on the _Finalizer,_ Finn had performed various duties on that shell of a planet, from sanitation to providing specialised technical assistance. Hux designed Starkiller Base. Hux gave the order to fire the superweapon. But Finn, and others like him, had helped build and keep the base functional over the years. They'd all played their parts, and knowing that still ate him up at night.

It wasn't the same, of course. Finn was not _so_ consumed by guilt as to imagine any blame he might accept was in any way similar to Hux's crimes. But it was something he'd thought about, following the mutiny, and seeing Hux brought it to the forefront of his mind. Poe's actions hadn't been malicious in intent, but they'd still been wrong. That was always the danger, when you didn't have all the facts, and at least Poe had the benefit of not having been spoonfed propaganda for as long as he could remember. And, most importantly, he'd done everything he could since that tragedy to try to make up for his mistakes. So had Finn, and so had Jannah, Forten, Jayelle and the rest. _Could_ Hux ever atone for his crimes, assuming he even _wanted_ to? How did one go about atoning for the billions of deaths on their hands? What, _precisely,_ was the difference between a tragedy and a cataclysm?

Finn was starting to think maybe he could do with a little time off-base to get his head straight, instead of stewing in questions he couldn't answer. Questions that he wasn't sure _had_ a simple answer. It wasn't that he intended to shirk his duties as general - the work the Resistance did was still important. Rather, since there were no shortages of people who needed their help, he could take those duties elsewhere. Maybe Rey would go with him. Based on what he'd learned with her, the Jedi would likely have had some old proverb, or else suggested meditation to clear his mind. Well, if it helped clear his mind, he figured a trip offworld could also count as his 'meditation'.

And he just so happened to know that the _Lady Luck_ had an opening.

* * *

Hux woke in his room on the _Tantive IV_ , even more spartan in its decor than his quarters on the _Finalizer_ had been. The lack of homeliness wasn't especially troubling to someone who'd spent most of their youth (and a good portion of their adult life) being shuttled between Star Destroyers. There hadn't been much point in getting too attached to one's personal quarters or belongings - not that he'd ever had much in the way of personal belongings. The only thing he'd ever felt any vague sense of yearning for was the low, ice-blue couch from his suite aboard the _Absolution,_ for the simple reason that he'd never found another as comfortable. The idea of becoming attached to, or - _stars forbid -_ entangled with one's colleagues was even more ridiculous, not least because you never knew when someone might be murdered in their own bed.

The Resistance, and especially _Dameron,_ were entirely too trusting. Not that Hux was naïve enough to believe Dameron had gifted him with a new set of teeth out of the goodness of his heart. Perhaps manipulation was a little _nicer_ than torture (and he wasn't about to complain about the lack of the latter), but in this instance the goal was the same. The two TIE pilots that had tailed Dameron had been treated decently because the Resistance desired information and cooperation. _He_ was treated decently because Dameron desired his cooperation.

But it hadn't escaped his attention that Finn had declined to let him speak to the pilots again after their little chat over the radio. It also hadn't surprised him, given that for all Finn's recent _defects,_ his childhood and adolescence hadn't been so _very_ different from Hux's own...though he suspected Cardinal had been kinder to the young troopers than his father had been to him, even if Phasma hadn't.

He would almost have admired Finn for defeating her, if it hadn't left him without an ally. She might have been a loose canon, but Phasma was predictable in a way that Ren was not. She could be reigned in, if he offered something she wanted - his father's problem had been that he'd never cared to _find out_ what Phasma wanted. Well, to be fair, his father had had a _lot_ of problems.

"Enough of that," Hux muttered to himself as he finished getting dressed, clothing himself in olive greens and beige, courtesy of the Resistance's lost-and-found, and picked up his cane. Dameron had made good on his promise to find him something to do, and now that the Tico girl was going to be off-base, he'd be resuming work on the power generators. It was dull, monotonous work, and rather a waste of his expertise to be quite honest.

But, he thought as he walked out into the corridor, it'd be worth it to see the look on Tico's face when she found out just _who_ had improved her design.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to shinysylver and ayjee, both of whom egged me on to start writing this 💖


End file.
